Trapped in Silence
by LinaLina-chama
Summary: Cleo is a fifteen year old girl who is mute. When she wakes up in a place she's never seen before, and is found by the strange Ed and Al Elric, how will she get home when she is trapped...in silence? -HIATUS-
1. Prologue

**A/N: Hey all, this was just something floating around in my head, so I hope it turns out good and you all enjoy!**

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_**Trapped in Silence**_

_Prologue_

There are many types of choices in life. Those that are wrong and those that are right, those thought through wisely, and those made quickly without a second thought, those that are best for us and those that are best for others.

And then, there is the most common; choices that are made for us, out of our control, and that are hardly considered thoroughly enough to see if they are good or bad.

Fate made a choice for me, whether it's good or bad I'm still trying to figure out. But one ting I know for sure, it was a choice I could never make for myself, and one I could never control.

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**A/N: Ok i know it's kinda short-ish.... i'm posting the first chapter up. My first and only fanfic... so far.**

**Thanks to Bareri San for coming up with the title :) and for helping with stuff i dont know about FMA, considering she is the only expert i know and if not for her I wouldn't even know this anime existed :P**


	2. Lost and Found

**Ok first chapter, I hopes you like it. It may be a tad confusing.**

_**Edit- 21 Dec '08-**Ok I have, for those who are reading, bad news: Thanks to my laptop charger deciding it wanted to break, I am now unalbe to access the first half of chapter 2 until I find the right charger. **I'm sorry!** Electrical things just tend to go wrong around me, so it's going to take longer than I'd hoped to get the next chapter. Again, I'M SORRY for those who had already started reading. (-ducks- please don't kill me!)_

_I have also fixed up some mistakes that I -ahem- overlooked. So please enjoy... and hopefully ch2 will be up asap._

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**Chapter.1**

_Lost & Found_

The last thing I remember was walking into my Ballet class, before everything went black.

And I woke up here.

My name is Cleo Kelcurts. I'm fifteen years old, and I'm a mute. And up until about five minutes ago – or however long I was out cold – I was an ordinary teenage schoolgirl. That is if you call having no friends, no family and being placed at the very bottom of the popularity list at school, all on top of being voiceless, ordinary.

It's dark and dusty, and I can hear dripping water somewhere in the distance. I stand up and look around. The ceiling and walls are made of thick steel and I'm surrounded by lots of metal beams, obviously supporting the structure. I walked around for a while and came to the conclusion that I was in some kind of warehouse or large shed. And it looked like it hasn't been used in years. I turned a corner and saw a small line of light.

Yes! Finally I find a door. Luck decided to be nice to me today. I ran to it and turned the handle.

Spoke to soon. It won't budge. I shift my weight into it a few times, until I finally hear the rust crack and the door swing open. I'm hit head on with a blast of bright light. I look up; the sky is a soft orange with a tinge of pink and filled with only a few clouds, so it must be late afternoon. I walk out on to a dirt road. I look to my right and sure enough there are more warehouses lined up on both sides of the road. I look back at the warehouse I came out of. There's a large '579' printed in large black numbers on the side.

Great. How do I get out now? Just when I thought I'd made progress getting out of that warehouse, now I have to get out of this. I walked down a few roads, turned a few more corners and I found nothing. Not only did I not find and exit, but I also found no people. This place is deserted.

It's official. I'm in a ghost town.

Suddenly I hear something. It sounds like footsteps, but the sound is too heavy to be normal footsteps. It's almost as if the person walking were wearing metal boots. As the sound gets closer, the footsteps become heavier, and eventually become loud clunking sounds. I hear another set of footsteps as well, and they're both getting closer. Beside me, is a gap between two warehouses with large and small crates leaning against each other. So I do the only thing I can, and hide behind one.

I could hear their voices as they pass by.

"So brother, why are we here again?" says one voice. The person is obviously male as is the person he's talking to, and his voice is echoed, as if the he were wearing a helmet or some sort of armour. But it sounded gentle and innocent, like that of a young boy.

"Mustang wants us to check the warehouses down the far end of the island. He said there was some suspicious activity around there." replies the 'brother'. This voice is clearer and obviously more mature than the first.

"But why would he send us all the way from Central? Shouldn't he have sent someone closer to the area?" says the first voice.

They keep moving and their voices fade away, so I don't hear the reply. I decide to take this as my queue to start moving again, but as I stand up I knock over a pile of smaller crates behind me and, with luck having deserted me long ago, they land with a loud crash. I hear a distant 'What was that?' followed by quickening footsteps. I turn around and come face to face with owners of the two voices.

As I suspected, the first person is wearing a large suit of armour, and is very tall. The second person is a lot shorter. He has long golden hair, which is tied back, and is wearing a red, robe-like jacket, that hangs down to his ankles with a strange symbol sewn on.

"Hey!" yells the shorter boy. "What are you doing here? This place is off limits, you can't be here!" If I had a voice, this would be that part where I explain that I was too shocked and scared to speak, but in my case, it doesn't matter. So I do the first thing that comes to my head. I turn and run.

"Hey, stop!" I heard the boy yell. I ignore him and keep running. He yells something that I can't hear to the other person and then runs after me. Having done ballet since I was seven my muscles were pretty strong, and I manage to get a fair distance from the boy. Just when I thought I lost him, I turn a corner and crash into something hard and fall backwards.

"Are you alright?" I hear. It was the armoured boy. Before he could say anything else, I shoot up and bolt in another direction completely. Not paying attention to where I'm heading, I eventually run straight into a dead end.

Typical me. Well looks like I've been caught. I can't really do much more. I fall to my knees and try to catch my breath, but I hear the boys catching up. I stand up and turn around just as they come around the corner. The smaller one is catching his breath but the taller one seems unaffected. The smaller boy steps forward.

"Okay, let's try this again now that you have nowhere to go," he starts. Now I was really getting scared. How was I going to answer their questions? I doubt that they knew sign language, let alone what it is. "Who are you and why are you here?" I look down at my feet. What should I do? How could I explain to them that I have no idea where I am or how I got here, when I have no voice?

"Answer me dammit! Don't just stand there looking at the ground, it's not going to answer for you." I flinch at his voice. The thought of the ground answering for me was really good right now.

"Brother, calm down. You're scaring her." says the armoured boy behind him. "She doesn't look like she's up to anything. We can't just jump to conclusions straight away. Maybe she's just lost."

"But this place is supposed to be completely empty. It's an island in the middle of the ocean. Even _we_ had a hard time finding it. I can't think of a way that she'd be able to." An island? In the middle of the ocean? How the hell did I get here?

"Well maybe she can tell us how she got here. But we aren't going to get answers by yelling and screaming at her," says the armoured boy. He walks passed the shorter boy and stops in front of me. He looks a lot bigger closer up, so I take a step backwards.

"Don't be scared, my brother and I didn't mean to frighten you." Brother? That's right. I heard him call the smaller boy 'brother' when he was talking to him. He seems to notice my confusion.

"My name's Alphonse, and that's my brother Edward," he says pointing to the boy behind him. "We're the Elric brothers. Have you heard of us?" Elric brothers? It doesn't sound familiar. I slowly shake my head.

"Haven't heard of us, huh?" says Edward. He must have walked up to us without me noticing. "Well, it's not the first time. In that case how 'bout we just start out with your name."

They both stare at me waiting for my answer. I look down again. I guess I could give sign language a try. I lift my hands and move them into the positions that make up my name. I look back up at them. Because Alphonse is wearing armour, I can only see Edward's expression… of confusion. Looks like they can't read it, oh well, there goes that plan. Now what?

"What was that?" Alphonse asks. "I didn't look like alchemy." Alchemy? Okay, now I definitely don't know where I am.

"No, it wasn't alchemy. I think it was some form of communication." Edward says. I look at him and nod my head quickly. These guys are smarter that they look.

"So that's how you talk to people?" Alphonse asks. I nod. "Is that how people communicate where you live?" I shake my head that time.

"Then why do you communicate that way? Why don't you just talk to other people?" asks Edward. That question got me facing the ground again. Looks like these guys intelligence had its limits.

I raise my head, showing my throat, and lift my right hand to it, tapping my voice box lightly.

"You can't speak?" asks Alphonse quietly and I nod. "I'm sorry, we didn't know," he says. I smile and shake my head trying to show them that it was okay. I never liked being pitied, I had grown so accustomed to being alone, I learned to make do with what I had, and stay strong for myself.

"Well, it's gonna be it bit more complicated getting information out of you then." Edward says with a grin. I look at him, smile, and nod. "So, how're we going to find a way for you to talk to us?"

I think for a few seconds and tap my foot on the hard dirt. Wait, dirt? I feel the ground, it's hard, but not to the extent that it's cracking like in a drought. I find a decent looking stone nearby, then motion the boys to kneel down. With the rock I scratch into the dirt 'My name is Cleo'.

"Cleo?" asks Alphonse. I smile and nod happily. Finally we were getting somewhere.

"Okay then Cleo. Now that we know who you are, we should start asking some more questions," starts Edward. "First off, why are you here?"

I lifted the stone again and scratched 'I don't know' into the dirt.

"You don't know," Edward says. "Okay then, do you know how you got here?" I shake my head. "Well this is getting us nowhere."

I decide that these guys seem trustworthy, so I give them a little more information.

'I woke up in one of the warehouses'

"Do you remember which one it was?" asks Alphonse. I nod.

'579'

"That's one of the ones on the far end of the island, isn't it brother?"

"Yeah," says Edward. "Looks like we found our 'suspicious activity'. Let's get going. Cleo, you're coming with us." I nod again, in understanding.

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We found the warehouse and went inside. One again I was surrounded by the dark dusty place that I woke up in.

"Cleo can you remember where you woke up?" Edward asks.

I shake my head. The place is too dark and I can't remember the route I took to get out.

"Don't worry about it Cleo. We should take a look around anyway." Alphonse says and I nod.

We walk around for what feels like a long time, until suddenly Edward trips over something.

"AHHH!!" Crash! I cough with all the dust that rose and look around, but can't see anything. When the dust finally clears I see Edward on the floor. I know he's hurt, but the dazed expression on his face is just so funny, I can't help but have a silent giggle.

"Brother! Are you alright?" asks Alphonse.

"NO I am NOT alright Al!" he yells back. My silent giggles turn into silent laughter. The boys stared at me with weird expressions. It must look strange seeing someone laugh without sound. Edward stands up.

"Come on," he says. "Let's take a look at what I tripped on. I didn't feel like something that belongs here."

We find the object that Edward tripped on and I recognise it immediately. It's my duffle bag. I look inside and, to my relief; all my ballet gear is still inside.

"Are these your things Cleo?" asks Alphonse. I nod in reply.

"Alright, let's keep looking. We can't waste time." says Edward.

We walk around for about another hour when Alphonse finds something.

"Hey, over here," We walk over and I see what he's holding.

It's a book, but it's not mine.

"I can't understand it. It's written in some other language," says Edward picking it up and flipping through the pages. "What about you Al? Think you can read it?" he passes the book to Alphonse.

"It's not familiar to me," he says flipping through it like Edward did. I look over Alphonse's arm and take a look at the pages. "Did you want to take a look Cleo?" he asks passing the book to me. I take it and look at the cover. There's a strange, circular symbol on it. I open up to the first page and look at the title.

_Voz de la Vida_

_Canción__ de la Verdad_

Ed was right, it was in another language. I recognised it as Spanish, and fortunately enough for them, I could understand it. I flipped though a few pages, it looked like an old textbook and some of the pages were torn and faded.

"Cleo?" I hear Alphonse say.

I looked at the title again. It _was_ sort of ironic, I guess, for this to be in _my_ hands.

"Voice of Life, Song of Truth." That was what the title translated to.

Like I said, ironic.

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	3. New Land, Same Sky

**A/N: I am so so so so so sorry for not updating sooner... Bareri-san (who is now known by some other name.. that i can't remember) pummeled me and put me in hospital!!**

**... Okay, I lied. I haven't been in hospital... I've just been lazy.. I'M SORRY OKAY!? -covers head- **

**But other than being lazy, I've had other things keeping me... err, occupied. Such as, as soon as I posted the last chapter up I recieved a virus on my laptop that took a good week to get rid of. Then I had rto go and re-enrol to my old school, go to hundreds of doctors appointments for my stupid infections and then start school. And since I'm in my final year, it has been brutal... so for these past two weeks I've had nothing but exams... fun huh? And get this, I only have ONE week of holidays... life's a real great experience isn't it?**

**So along with my bajillion assignments that I have due, I managed to (finally) complete Chapter two. Thats so much for those who reviewed and put my story on favourites and alerts, even thought it wasn't many, I still appreciated them all -hugs-. **

**Hope you enjoy you guys! Happy Easter, go get sick on chocolates! (like i did)**

**P.s: I fixed up some stuff on the last chapter.. and I'm off to make the Prologue look more organised, so if you wanna re-read the first chapter, by all means go ahead, but if you're anything like me, i wouldn't blame you if you couldn't be bothered. _ *Gracias!***

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**Chapter.2**

_New Land, Same Sky_

After searching the rest of the warehouse, and not finding anything, Edward and Alphonse decided it was time to leave. To where and how exactly, we were supposed to leave, I wasn't sure of. That is, until I saw the boat. Or at least I think it was a boat, it looked more like a miniature cruise ship if you ask me. It was only after the ten-minute ride did I realise that we were to take a train for most of the trip.

I was told that the ride back to 'Central' as Edward and Alphonse called it, was very long, so I decided that it would be a good time to think, which is what I'm doing now.

What is this place? Where is my home? Would I ever get back?

I guess it didn't matter if I never did. No one would be waiting for me, and I doubt that anyone would notice I'm missing. I don't have parents, they were labelled as 'Missing In Action' when they went overseas to treat the wounded in some sort of dispute of the country. But that was when I was very young. My grandparents had gained custody of me as they were my only family left but they passed away just a year after I started high school.

I have no friends either; I'm considered the little weirdo at school. The nerd. I would sit at the back of the room, by myself. I always kept my hair down, hiding my face, so people wouldn't notice me. It worked, some of the time. I didn't even bother trying to make friends at the dance studio, the hair trick was practically useless there. I usually kept all my focus and attention on my dancing.

No one except the teachers know about my living conditions, and they've always been offering me help, which I gratefully accept, but I didn't want them telling any of the other students about it. It would've probably just turned into something else they could use to torment me.

The teachers would probably be the first ones to notice my disappearance, after a week or so. I hardly ever miss school.

Work would probably be second. My boss told me I had the next week off because the place was closed for renovations. I work at a small flower shop around the corner of my apartment. The people there were nice enough and it had good pay, but I never got close to anyone.

I look at the sky through the glass, it was getting dark already. How long was it going to take to get there? I sigh deeply.

"You look tired Cleo, maybe you should sleep," says Alphonse. "It's going to be a while until we get there." I shake my head. I wouldn't be able to sleep, not after everything that's happened. I look over at Edward. He's still looking through the book we found. He flips through the pages quickly, the confused expression never leaving his face.

I reach over to my duffel bag and pull out a pen and my brand new binder notepad. I guess this is one lucky outcome. I'm going to have to do a lot of writing here.

'Do you need any help?' I write and pass the notepad to Edward.

He reads my note and shakes his head.

"It's okay, Cleo. You should get some rest. " He passes the notepad back to me.

'Are you sure? I could translate some of it for you.' I scribble.

"Don't worry about it Cleo, we can work on the book later." He shuts the book tucks it into a pocket in his cloak.

"Why don't you tell us a bit about yourself Cleo," says Edward suddenly. "It might pass the time."

I look between them for a second. Alphonse gives me an encouraging nod. I shrug and scribble, 'What do you want to know?'

They think for a moment.

"Well, do you have any family?" Alphonse asks.

I shake my head.

"You don't have any family?" he asks again, appalled. Again, I shake my head.

"What happened to them?" asks Edward. I shrug.

"You don't know?" Jeez, was there something wrong with these guys' minds? Obviously a shrug means 'I don't know'. I shake my head to answer his question.

"How could you not know?" asks Edward. Wow, these guys are really upfront, aren't they?

"Brother, you can't just ask personal questions like that. It's rude," says Alphonse. I nod my head in thanks. It's a relief to see that _one_ of them has brains.

"Well?" says Edward, ignoring Alphonse's comment.

"Brother!"

I grab my notepad and write three letters then pass the book to Edward.

I see him read my note and his eyes widen in surprise.

"MIA?" he asks quietly. I nod stiffly, reaching to take back the notepad.

"How long?"

'Seven years' I write.

"Seven?" asks Alphonse in disbelief. "You haven't seen your parents in seven years?" I shake my head.

"What happened?" asks Edward.

I sigh deeply and write: 'My parents were doctors. They went overseas when I was eight to help some injured civilians but they were never heard from again after three months and I haven't seen them since.'

They read my note and exchange a glance that I can't really decipher. Must be something between brothers I guess.

"That's similar to what happened to Winry, isn't it brother?" says Alphonse

"Yeah … almost identical. Except…" Edward trails off deep in thought.

Except? Except what? And who's Winry? Edward has a strange look on his face. I look at Alphonse with a confused expression, but he just shakes his head.

The silence drags out for a few minutes and I'm looking out the window again without even realising I moved.

Alphonse breaks the silence by saying, "Cleo why don't you … tell us about the things you like?"

Things I like? That's a sudden but major change in topic. It seems like an easy enough, topic to talk about – or in my case write – but there are very little things I like so that conversation might not last very long.

I think for a while for something to write. I look over to my duffel bag, well that could be a good place to start.

'I like ballet.' I write.

They look at my note, and then look at me, confused.

"What's 'bal-let'?" says Edward, sounding the 't' in the word.

I snatch the notepad back from Edward in frustration. I hate it when people can't pronounce 'ballet' properly. It annoys me to no end. If people have the ability to speak then they should at least use it properly, instead of taking it for granted.

I hand the notepad to Edward after writing: 'It's pronounced 'bal-ay', and it's a type of dance.'

"Dance?" says Edward. I nod. "I've never heard of it. Have you Al?"

"Nope," he replies.

I just stare at them. We're these guys from another planet or what? Sure, I can accept that guys can _dislike _ballet; I mean, it's not the manliest thing out there, I know. But not knowing what it is altogether? Now that's just… insane.

"Are you alright Cleo?" asks Alphonse.

Wait. What if I _am_ on some other planet? That could be theory. Popping up in some place I've never seen before without any means of how I got there. Okay fine, maybe not another planet, but something else? Like… like another world or dimension. Maybe I travelled back in time! Oh, wait that can't be right. Ballet has been going on since the fifteenth century, and this _definitely _isn't the fifteenth century.

"Cleo, what's wrong?" asks Edward.

I have to pull myself together before they think _I'm_ insane. Should I tell them? How could I explain? It would probably take too long. Curse my inability to speak!

I shake my head at them. No point in trying, I'll just think of a way later.

But then where was I, really? And why? Did someone send me here? Was it on purpose?

Now the boys had that 'maybe-she's-crazy-after-all' look.

"Are you sure you're okay, Cleo?" asks Alphonse. I nod quickly. It doesn't help me if these guys think I've cracked it.

Silence.

More silence.

Even more silence.

I'm back to looking out the window now, watching this weird world fly by, while the boys seem to be having some sort of heated discussion, about me no doubt. I try to block them out, focusing entirely on the sky. Funny, how the sky, and everything in it, seem to be the only things that look the same. Never-changing and never-ending.

This time, it's Edward that breaks the silence.

"Hey, Cleo?" says Edward. "Could we ask you something?"

I raise my hand in a gesture for them to go ahead.

"Well, I'm sure our appearance to you seems to be… more than out of the ordinary, but you don't look… affected to it," says Alphonse. "Aren't you the least bit curious, or afraid?"

I feel the blood rise to my cheeks. Honestly I didn't want to say anything – or rather, write anything – because I know it would be rude. But, in truth, I've never seen anything like these two before, like Alphonse had said, they look more than out of the ordinary. But they were different, like me, and they seem to keep to themselves, from what I've seen so far. Those were things I could relate to, and I know that in time, should I stay with them long enough, they would tell me more about themselves, just as I'd told them about me.

'I didn't want to mention anything. You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to'

They both skim over my note quickly.

"Well, you've told us a bit about yourself Cleo," says Alphonse. "It's only fair that we tell you a bit about ourselves."

"Yeah," agrees Edward. "Of course, we can't promise to answer all of your questions. We try to keep a low profile and so we keep to ourselves most of the time, you know what I mean?"

I nod. I know _exactly_ what he means, so I decide to start of with the most basic of questions. 'How old are you?'

Edward looks at my note and his expression turns to a look of dread. Alphonse on the other hand looks as though he's trying to hold in laughter, probably from some private joke or something.

Alphonse takes the notepad away from Edward and hands it back to me, while Edward sighs deeply. "I'm fifteen," he says after a short pause.

"And I'm fourteen," says Alphonse.

Ah. Now I get it. _Someone_ has some height issues. Not that it's something I've never seen before. Considering how much ballet tends to stunt a persons growth, it wasn't surprising to hear one or two girls a week complaining about how short they were compared to the other girls in their grades. Although, I never had much of a problem with it, I'm actually quite a bit taller than the girls in my class, but then again that also made me slightly taller than Edward. And considering we're the same age, I wonder how he'll take it…

Alphonse seemed to notice my look of realization and is now trying to hold in more laughter, while Edward is turned away from both of us and is looking out the window with a sulky look on his face. Now Alphonse isn't the only one trying to hold in laughter.

"Is there anything else you wanted to ask? Or are we finished?" Edward says, still not looking at us.

I try to sober up and quickly think of another question. 'What do you like to do for fun?'

Edward looks like he's stumped at this question. "Fun…" he whispers softly to himself.

"Actually, Cleo," starts Alphonse. "We don't get a lot of time for fun. You see, we're always travelling."

No time for fun? Well that seems a bit unfair. Alphonse seems to see my disapproval. "Don't get us wrong, it's not like we don't enjoy what we're doing. We just usually spend our free time studying or sparring with each other, but we don't even get a lot of time for that."

"Yeah, you can blame the military for that," says Edward, closing his eyes and putting his hands behind his head. "But I'm not gonna complain about their library, they have a hell of a lot of books." I can't help but smile at that last comment. At least these guys like books too.

"And speaking of the military," continues Edward, opening one eye. "It looks like we're finally here."

I look out the window in excitement. The sky is completely dark now, and I can see the lights of the station glowing in the distance.

"Welcome to Central, Cleo."

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**A/N: So, there you have it you guys! Hope you enjoyed. Now I have a shameful confession to make. I haven't really been up to date with my FMA, its been ages since I've watched or read it, so if you see or read anything that sounds off, retarded or a bit iffy just let me know and hopefully I'll try to fix it (but knowing me, I probably won't get far). So, yeah, typos, fucked up sounding sentences, confusing scenes that don't make sence coz i've changed something from the original set out, anything stupid of the sort, let me know.. that way I won't sound as dumb as I really am!... Although it's a bit late, some of you already know how stupid I am! haha... ok im out.**


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